who're your favorite mappers

we need some ✧positivity✧ around here, so go ahead and list who your favorite custom mappers are and gush about them if you want

Since this kind of thread crops up so often with the same people listed I'm just going to list who I think are top PVP mappers, regardless of how I feel about them personally and their work! Comes nicely off the back of Doomkid's latest video on the best PVP wads.

 

@RottKing

I have said for years I firmly believe Rottking is the most prolific PVP mapper in Doom. He's got an array of themes and an inherent knack for creating fun layouts. His resume of maps is a testament to this. So many contributions to so many different community projects and solo/pair projects, his volume of work is staggering. Such a creative mind that doesn't seem to die out after more than 15 years is nothing short of amazing.

 

@AlexMax

AlexMax's versatility is one of his greatest strengths in PVP mapping. His CTF maps have stood the test of time, and inspired countless spin offs and ideas. Responsible for the creation of the DuelXX compilations, Alex has demonstrated not only his capaibilities as a mapper, but also as a driver for the community, helping players recognize quality maps, introducing them to new ones, as well as helping new mappers figure out what does and does not work.

 

@Ralphis

Am I jerking off UD? I can't tell, there are many UD mappers that deserve a mention, but Ralphis is a top mention for sure. The UDM series and his CTF maps have also stood the test of time. Ralphis is a household name in PVP for a good reason, and ZDCTF map04: Ralphis' Magical Ice Forts has made and broken many players. A man of many talents, he's got a long resume of PVP and PVE maps. His long standing influence on future mappers places him on the top list.

 

@Mechadon

Although I'm still waiting to see those new DM maps of his, Mechadon has served not only as an inspiration for the SP side of Doom, but also for the PVP side. His versatility is incredible and the architectural wonders of his PVP maps are important because PVP's population often disagrees with any sort of detail. Long standing, his maps have reached many Dm'ers over the years.

 

@Razgriz

Out of all these mappers, Razgriz is the newest but since 2014 has pushed out quite a bit of content relevant to the scene. It took him a while to get his detailing abilities off the ground, but his layouts are some of the funnest I've ever played in my Dooming experience. It's hard to pin down a particular style for him, but his maps are top quality for the projects they are built for.

 

 

Honourable mentions for their contributions to PVP in terms of quality and quantity. Some people may say x y or z should be on the main list but I thought about whole works rather than just amazing one offs. I'm sure I'm missing some people but these are the ones that immediately came to mind.

 

@Hellbent - Greenwar is arguably one of the best DM wads, allegedly, according to many, many who are not me. But it does have a lasting legacy.

@esselfortium - So many questionable layouts. Takes a certain taste to get used to them. But Essel's inspiration can be found twined through many maps that came after, and each one was quality. As with Mechadon, anytime there was a PVP release Essel was involved with, everyone stopped to take a look.

@Dragonfly - I'm not too aware of Dragonfly's earlier PVP creations, but the ones he's made recently are top quality. Fun, look great, and strike the right balance between simplistic fun and interesting/complex design, I would look forward to future creations but I don't think any more are coming.

Dark Linux - CyberCrime 3 is one of those FFA total pleasers that strikes the right chords. The digital themes caused so much wonder, and the game play was simple: frag frag frag.

@Nautilus - His UDM contributions are quite fun, and many of his one-off creations I think I may have underappreciated at some point.

Titan - I think he's Czech? @dew may know more, but I think there are some really interesting and fun maps in his resume that may have been shafted due to a declining DM population rather than their own virtues

@Ru5tK1ng - Ru5tK1ng has pushed forward so many new ideas recently, and although I'd personally say some of his more recent creations are questionable, they are of high quality, and if we stretch back to Eon DM, he is responsible for ushering in a new age of wads, as EonDM and his ideas were responsible for DBAB, AeonDm, Progduel, and NeonDM.

@Doomkid - What's not to say about Doomkid? his contributions to the scene are many and varied, and his maps have reached a huge audience over the years. His passion for DM serves as an inspiration for mappers who want to dip their toes into the scene with little to no judgement.

@RoSKing - RosKing's contributions to the CTF scene is huge. Although there are some dubious components to what exactly that might be, for his sheer quantity and overall quality of work I believe he deserves to be mentioned here. Hide n Seek was an interesting mod as well that captured the minds of many at the time.

 

 

Edited March 7, 2021 by Decay

Some of mine, in no particular order:

 

@Dragonfly

@Remilia Scarlet

@skillsaw

@Bridgeburner56

@esselfortium

@Tormentor667

 

 

Edited March 7, 2021 by MFG38

Adam Windsor (Demonfear, Doom 404)

Steve Duff (Realm of Chaos, TNT: Revilution)

Stephen Clark (Fragport, 007: License to Spell Doom, Super Sonic Doom)

Ofisil (Doom: Damnation)

Gwynn Williams (Vile Flesh)

Andy Stewart (Doom 2: Reloaded)

Nathan Lineback (Mars War)

Ryath (UnAlignes, Unbeliver, UnMaking, Absolutely Killed)

Moustachio (Interception, Interception 2, Atonement)

franckFRAG (Swift Death, Tangerine Nightmare, 180 minutes pour Vivre)

Gusta (Kama Sutra, Plutonia 2)

Thomas van der Velden (Revolution!, Harmony)

Scypek2 (Three is a Crowd)

Phobus (25 Years on Earth)

Cheesewheel (CPD)

Zylinderkatze (URE2020, URE1995)

Justin Fisher (Aliens TC)

Mordeth (Mordeth E1)

Espi (Back to Basic, Suspended in Dusk)

Revae (100 Minutes of /vr/, REKKR)

Paul Corfiatis (The Twilight Zone, 2002: A Doom Odyssey)

Kristian Aro (Brotherhood of Ruin, 2002: A Doom Odyssey, 32 Hours in Pain)

Years (Nihility: Infinite Teeth)

Wraith777 (A.L.T., Alpha Accident: Terra Nova, Gods & Guardians)

Lainos (5till Alone Complex, A.L.T., Comatose)

Eternal (Epic, Hell Ground, EPIC 2)

DASI-I (Doom Zero)

Deadwing (Moonblood, Exomoon, Ozonia)

NaturalTvventy (The Beggining of the End 1 & 2, No End In Sight)

Mouldy (Going Down, Nova: The Birth, D2INO)

 

I found that most of the mapsets i love are from one mapper alone. Thus are most of those i linked ;)

 

 

Edited March 7, 2021 by P41R47

This one of those things where your answer changes depending on what day it is, how good your brain is working and other factors..

 

• Espi
• Iori
• Exl
• Chris Hansen
• Dr Sleep
• Karthik Abhiram
• DooMAD
• ReX
• Sarge Baldy
• Paul Corfiatis
• Agent Spork
• Chris Lutz
• Blackfyre
• Ola Björling
• Nightmare
• Tango

Edited March 7, 2021 by Doom_Dude

• Skillsaw
• ...

Thank you folks for the mentions! <3
As to my favorite mappers:
 

-Bridgeburner

-Dragonfly

-Ribbiks

-Ronnie James Diner

-Danlex

-Aurelius

-warren

-jazzmaster

-Jimmy

-Misty
-Guardsoul

-Bauul

EDIT: OMG Tango! Absolutely an amazing mapper in his own right and an amazing person to work with.

Edited March 8, 2021 by Major Arlene

2 hours ago, Biodegradable said:

Here's my list so far of mappers whose work really excites me:

• Clippy
• Phobus
• Soulless
• Remilia Scarlet
• Dragonfly
• Orcsbreath
• Chaingunner
• Breezeep
• Bauul
• Major Arlene
• BridgeBurner
• Jimmy
• Antares
• Danlex
• AD_79
• Man with Gun
• Alfredo
• Pegleg
• Austinado
• Worm
• BluePineapple
• StormCatcher

 

I'll know I made it as a good mapper when I'm on your list of all people's haha. Appreciate that you go around leaving videos for new mappers, really useful to get to watch somebody play your stuff blind so you can adjust some stuff like secrets.

 

As for my favorite mappers, I haven't played enough maps to formulate an opinion on it, but my favorite types of maps to play are those made by newer people. You never know if newbie's first map will be a standard techbase map or something that's going to completely blow you away.

You know you are a talented and a prolific mapper when your name is never mentionned in all the long lists... :)

1 minute ago, Roofi said:

You know you are a talented and a prolific mapper when your name is never mentionned in all the long lists... :)

However I know that you contributed to 180 minutes and tangerine nightmare, good stuff

37 minutes ago, Major Arlene said:

-jizzmaster

-Jammy

Alright, she didn't really write that, but that's how I read it on first pass.

 

As for me... Hmm, I feel like my answers to this recurring question are all over the place based on mood, and I've had a big, tasty break from all things Doom for a few months, so let's say my favourites today are Big Ol' Billy, glenzinho, vertigo and Scrangus McBrickdad. After all, who doesn't love some DBP?

Just today, i've played fantastic levels from Rob Berkowitz, jim Bagrow, Datacore and Deadwing.

 

Point being, i don't really have favourites.  There's so many people making good levels in their own style, and apparently has been since the mid-90s, that to choose favourites would be arbitrary - and limiting.  i don't look at the name of the mapper, their fame or previous output, when i'm choosing something new to play, only if the style of the project is the kind i prefer.  Also generally, in WADs i play, there's hardly any levels i don't enjoy.  And on another note, if we use 180 Minutes Pour Vivre as example, i didn't care for Datacore's map07, but thought map12 is great.  So...

 

So in my book, everyone's on even level after John, Sandy & co.  Sorry if it seems like a copout or whatever, but there it is.

I'm not sure but I'd say the guy who made Alien Vendetta maybe.

40 minutes ago, MidnightMage said:

It's this thread again. I guess it has been a couple months since we saw this exact topic posted lol.

Carry on.

 

But how else can we recognize our little circle of friends over and over???? That's why I opted to make a list of people who made valuable contributions to the PVP, I'm not really good friends with most of them or don't talk to them on any sort of regular basis, and some of them hate my guts but I recognize their significance and impact in PVP wad creation.

My favourite guy here is @Jimmy, not only as a mapper, but most importantly as a musician and leader of several MIDI pack projects.

My most favourite mapping project from Jimmy is Faithless, one among the best Heretic WADs I played.

1 hour ago, MidnightMage said:

It's this thread again. I guess it has been a couple months since we saw this exact topic posted lol.

Carry on.

 

tbf i don't remember seeing this sort of thread, i'm sure they're common but eh

 

besides, it's nice to praise others

Just to name a few:
Erik Alm, Skillsaw, AD_79, Breezeep, Egg Boy, esselfortium, tourniquet, Ribbiks, Xaser, Chainie\ChaingunnerX, dobu gabu maru, Jaws in Space, Doomkid, Deadwing, Tango, The_SloVinator, yakfak, valkiriforce, antares031, Aurelius

Edited March 7, 2021 by Noiser

When I first started in the community mine were:

- Tarnsman

- MTrop

- Jimmy

- Alfonzo

- Erik Alm

- Tormentor667

- Esselfortium

- Xaser

- Pavera

- Mechadon

- Rottking

- Ralphis

 

Lately it has been:

- Major Arlene

- Bridgeburner

- InsaneGazebo 

- Bauul

- All the above mentioned in  When I first started in the community Since the majority are still active

There's lots of other mappers who do amazing stuff and i admire, to keep it short i'll list my 5 favorite mappers for one reason or another

Dragonfly - Eviternity remains one of my favorite sets of all time
Esselfortium - With her BTSX work being favorite of mine, but also including her work on the DTWiD series whose maps i really enjoy.
Mechadon - What i love about Mechadon are this huge exploratory maps that are always engaging and fun to play, Unstable Journey is one of my favorite maps of all time
Skillsaw - Top tier mapper whose maps are always a joy to play with Ancient Aliens being my favorite skillsaw set
Bridgeburner - Whose visual style remains top tier, and due to Bastion of Chaos being one of the best maps i've played

And beyond those there's also other mappers, like AD_79, Misty, Jimmy, A2Rob, Cyano and many other names im probably forgetting from the top of my head who always make top notch stuff that i always enjoy, so cheers all and keep making good content!

Edited March 7, 2021 by DMPhobos

Haven't played a ton of diverse WADs, so I don't have a very big list just yet. But I've always liked @Ribbiks' and @dannebubinga's works, as genius, difficult, and inspiring as they are. I've been looking into more of @skillsaw's works after discovering and loving Valiant, with the help of decino and @MtPain27's videos.

I liked the two Scythe WADs, they're fun for the most part. I think I like the first one more due to its formula of "small, fun maps to blast through". Scythe II didn't carry that and I feel it was a bit more generic in comparison.

Currently I'm loving @Insane_Gazebo's work on Sunder. Had a few nice chats with him while playing it, too. Same with @Bridgeburner56 and his work on Bastion of Chaos. I'm looking forward to the projects I'm seeing in the Hellforge Discord server.

@Clippy and @muumi have made some pretty fun stuff, too, and I really enjoyed @mouldy's Going Down.

 

A good amount of the WADs I've played are community projects, so I can't really speak for those. However, most of the maps in Boaty McBoatwad, 3x3, SF2012, 50 Shades of Graytall, and so on, were top-notch.

 

I've hit a wall in my own mapping, so I'm eager to look into more stuff. I've had my eye on Eviternity, Heartland, Hellevator, Alien Vendetta, and various other projects...but I really gotta get myself to sit down and play them.

Jim Flynn - one of the most impressive authors to me when I started out playing Doom PWADs. The Enigma episode, Titan series and his Eternal Doom maps are all abstract, exploratory and fun for me to figure out.

 

Dario & Milo Casali - consistently good designers with clean Doom aesthetics that just work. Plutonia is a classic. Also I enjoy their other contributions to TNT, Memento Mori and Requiem.

 

Sverre Kvernmo - very innovative author with his Master Levels contributions and Eternal Doom levels. His Black Tower level is a classic, and his Eternal Doom maps really push the boundaries on vanilla Doom 2.

 

Gusta - greatly enjoyed his Plutonia 2 maps. Very fun, non-linear carnage to be had in his levels. His Kama Sutra megawad is pretty good, too.

 

Big Ol' Billy - definitely has been one of my favorite authors in recent years. His work has really inspired my own designing process and he knows how to make Doom really playful and creative. His work in Mindblood Genesis, Occult Secrets, The City of Damned Children and Tomatomania! are some of my favorites.

 

40oz - I find a lot of his layouts and gameplay ideas agreeable and fun. Consistently good at coming up with Doomy designs and unique project themes. His Ezekiel episode and Monuments of Mars contributions are some of my favorites, along with his other DBP maps.

 

Doomkid - very good at maintaining that classic Doom aesthetic with a mixture of DeHackEd fun - I enjoyed his two episodes The Devilz Work and The Sinister Seven, and also had fun with Doomed In SPACE. I still have some catching up to do!

 

Dennis & Thomas Möller - they make an awesome team and are responsible for running a couple of my favorite megawads, Memento Mori I & II. Great at coming up with lots of interesting ways of trapping the player and subverting expectations. Very Doomy feeling in their maps too with all the new texture work, which looks and plays great.

 

waverider - I've really been digging his huge exploratory maps which has been lots of fun for me to traverse get lost in (and I do mean that in a good way!). His Glacier Base map is one of my favorites, and his work for Curse of Blood is like a good blend of classic Doom 2 fun with a more panoramic feel to them.

 

There's plenty more I could talk about - I want to at least give a shoutout to Bob Evans, Erik Alm, Tom Mustaine, Anders Johnsen, Kim André Malde, Eternal, Andy Stewart, Dragonfly, antares031, SuperCupcakeTactics and probably lots of others for putting out some quality Doom content. I might be here all day if I go on about all these awesome peeps!

So many great mappers have already been mentioned, and there are so many more who will unfortunately not see their names, most typically less prolific mappers who contribute to community projects, but anyone who puts in enough work to help release a full project is talented in my book. That being said, there are a few folks who are currently fresh in my mind, or repeatedly entertain me with their style:

 

Somniac ( Arrokoth, Fire on the Mountain )

pcorf, Kristian Nebula ( 2022 A Doom Odyssey, Whispers of Satan )

exl ( Infection )

Seidolon ( Cyrgoth's Manor, Cyrgoth's Revenge, Afterlands )

Edited November 21, 2023 by Lippeth

Erik Alm and Kim André Malde (RIP)

• Sandy Petersen for his experimental maps that tested unique styles of mapping and gameplay. MAP09 is one of my personal favorites.

• B.P.R.D for making some insane wads like Equinox and Nuts, and additionally he made the Mucus Flow.

• bemused for some sick ass slaughtermaps (mostly from Flotsam), like Snek, Hy-stair-ical, Jumpgate and the goddamn Abandon mapset.

• Erik Alm for the Scythe series, especially Scythe 1, which is one of my main influences as a mapper.

• Skillsaw because Ancient Aliens was the first custom wad I ever played, and also his maps are just fun.

• Insane_Gazebo for Sunder, being one of my favorite wads of all time for its ambition and execution.

Edited March 7, 2021 by AtticTelephone

Eternal

In no particular order, along with my favourite works from them.

 

Sverre André Kvernmo (Eternal Doom (Nucleus, Time Gate, Darkdome), Echelon (2016!) and some of the best Master Levels)

B.P.R.D (Equinox, Grove, The Mucus Flow and of course, Nuts Trilogy)

Mouldy (Going Down)

Kim André Malde (Castle Gardens, Toxic Touch and Misri Halek from Alien Vendetta)

Drake O' Brien (Central Processing, Administration Center and Mount Pain from TNT: Evilution)

Gary Gosson (Hydroponics, Nightfall and The Haunting from Icarus)

Ribbiks (Stardate 20X6, Stardate 20X7, Sunlust)

Eternal (Hell Ground, Epic 2)